Unexpected guests
by michaelPL
Summary: It's my first story so don't be too harsh on me. It is different than other sequels. Forgive me language mistakes, I am 15 years old and not English native speaker - I have FCE passed and that's all. I haven't used any dictionaries. Review please!


**Unexpected guests – By Michael_PL **

Videolog entry #98

RDA Management, Operation "Buttercup"

Name: Thoris, Alice

Date: 22/02/2159

Time: 16:54

Ok, so I moved some asses up there and we've got quite good results. We have developed our own recordings of what happened on Pandora. Yeah, some natives have massacred our unarmed miners without a reason. We were trying to solve this out peacefully but they got even worse. It is all being sent to Earth's governments as I speak. I believe that over 2000 hours of making computer effects will pay off and it's going to piss off many politics. They will want a revenge for what the natives did to us. The best thing is that returning people on ISV Venture Star haven't come back to the Solar System yet. We have already sent another ISV, much more faster (speed 90% c) to intercept that ship and destroy it. No one outside of Management and the trusted crew of "Rescue ship" will know what exactly happened out there and what was screwed up by Selfridge and Quaritch. The only version will be OUR version because at least Parker did one wise thing - he made sure to blow up all the long range antennas before coming of Na'vi and Norman wasn't aware of this. I got to go, the meeting with the United Nations (UN) President will be held shortly.

UN Headquarters, about 2 hours later

"Welcome all and thank you for coming", said the president of the UN, John Banshee.

"Good morning, Mr. President", RDA boss Fernando Rodriguez and his best advisor, Alice Thoris, replied at the same time.

"I am really sad to meet you under these circumstances, Mr. Rodriguez. I know that those terrible events took place over 4 years ago but even information traveling with the light speed needs some time. I must admit that I was totally shocked by the way the natives treated you. You tried to persuade them gently into letting you mine but they massacred you without a warning. Your attempts to stop their assault failed and you lost all the people. I was petrified when I saw over 3-metre-high creatures sieging your last rooms in the base and then the data stream ended. The man who sent us this whole data before dying was a true hero. Right now, we are here to discuss our comeback to Pandora in order to avenge the deaths of the innocent people and scientists. My proposal is to join forces and combine our technologies to develop a new kind of ships which will have faster than light capabilities and better weapons. Our goal is to show the natives who is better here!"

"I agree with you completely, Mr. President. We can't let humans to be killed without any consequences", Rodriguez said. "I will contact my research team shortly and make sure that cooperation with your scientists go smoothly. However, I can say right now that we have made a breakthrough. For instance, we have invented a new kind of energy weapon – it's much more than a usual laser. It's a highly effective beam able to penetrate even the most resistant alloys. Your teams will receive the details shortly. We have also developed a new kind of engine. Ship of size of about 3 ISVs would be able to travel to Alpha Centauri in less than 8 months by creating some kind of artificial microwormholes. However, we have problems with overheating of the reactor. Maybe your specialists would be able to help…"

"Very well, Mr. Rodriguez. As far as I can see, you are a man with initiative. There are also some minor details I would like to discuss but we can make it anytime later. Now, get to work!"

The meeting was soon over. No one on Pandora, including Jake, was suspecting that the Earth's government will join forces with RDA in the effect of perfect intrigue. This combination, with the new technology posed a deadly threat to probably the happiest place in the universe…

Videolog entry #106

RDA Management, "Operation Buttercup"

Name: Thoris, Alice

Date: 30/03/2159

Time: 23:21

We are beginning to make progress. Finally the president's guys have fixed our problem with the reactors and we have design of the new model of spaceship ready. They already are using the old ISVs parts to make a skeleton of some new Athena class cruisers. They are also modifying the conventional land and air craft. There will be Scorpions mark 10 with increasingly upgraded hull and much more resistant to attacks of Pandoran creatures. We have also new generation of guided missiles being produced and many soldiers trained for Pandoran environment. I believe that the invasion forces will be ready in 2-3 years time. By the way, I am wondering about the new project "Pandora's Box". I don't know what this is all about, even on my security level but I heard Banshee talking about space destroyer. It is said that its hull could withstand like 5 nuclear explosions at one time. I have no goddamned idea what kind of power would it have…Well, it's time for me to sleep, tomorrow we will have a test of guided missiles.

**Pandora**

Jake was sitting under the _Vitraya Ramunong__ (The Tree of Souls) _and wondering deeply. He was _Olo'eyktan_ now and he was serving his People well – the time of Great Sorrow really ended and the times of Great Prosperity began for Omaticaya. He had Neytiri – the woman he loved and he would die for her. They had son – Tsu'tom and he was proud of him. He could move… People were singing sagas about new _Toruk Makto_ all over the Pandora. It should have made the happiest man from him and he actually was very glad. However, the perspective of RDA returning was bothering him all the time. Sky People would be returning with much more strength….

Neytiri was observing him quietly for long time and she felt some negative emotions taking over Jake so she decided to stop them. She slowly approached him, moved her hand through his cheek's surface and asked "Why are you so sad, my Jake? You can tell me"

"I am worrying about our People, Neytiri" he replied, " About our future. And future of our beloved son."

"Let me see your thoughts. Let's face it together. Share your fears with me. Then there will be a great feast because Eywa provided us with the best hunts and we have plenty food for the People".

They began _Tsa'haylu _so Neytiri could share Jake's thoughts. It could really help Jake fight the distant sadness inside him.

**Epsilon Pegasi ****System, 13/04/2579**

Taskforce 14 consisted of 20 spaceships. The biggest one was a superdreadnought named FNS "Aegis" (FNS= Federation Navy Ship), under command of admiral Parker. There was also a new class of warship – superbattleship FNS "Andromeda", commanded by captain Chelwetyn. It had a new generation of weaponry – long range rockets launchers as well as very powerful beam weaponry. However, it wasn't possible to run a complete test of it because of war with new race of alien species - The Shivans. Their technology was much more powerful than solutions used in Terran and other allied species fleet. No one was ever able to communicate with the Shivans even if it seemed to have a transmission received. They just attacked without reason – they blew up the unarmed first contact vessels unprovoked. They also destroyed the Barnai Homeworld Planet. The war was going really bad – it was estimated that at this rate of loses the Federation fleet will be destroyed in a matter of 5 months.

"We are approaching the wormhole to Antares, sir" , I reported to captain Chelwetyn, being his tactical officer.

"Very well, mr. Salmon", he replied "Admiral has already jumped with FNS Aegis. We will be going now, after those civilian transports we are escorting, jump out."

Several minutes later, we were already in subspace along with the convoy. Antares was a system where allied forces held their ground and was quite safe location for civilian refugees. All was going well until 02:45. I was on my watch near the sensor array and it suddenly picked up some pink dot – meaning unidentified unit. My first thought was that it was some kind of anomaly in subspace interfering with sensor readings so I decided to just put it in the log and not to alert anyone. It was a standard procedure for this kind of readings in subspace- it's impossible to have enemy jumping out of nowhere there.

A while later on, it became red and on the computer display I saw the report that object's energy signatures match Shivan ones, but they are out of scale. Few seconds later I could see undoubtedly a Shivan ship of unknown class. It was taking the whole display! Normally the ships are merely visible at this distance. It was a big octopussy-like shape with weapons on tentacles and it looked pretty creepy. I was terrified, immediately pressed the Red Alert button and contacted captain via Intercom, I also opened a comm transmission to Admiral at the same time. I reported:

"We have a situation here, sir. Shivan ship – readings out of scale. Computer says it is charging weapons from this distance. Oh my God I will try to hail it while armoring the beams to full strength! Captain, come here ASAP!"

I started hailing the Shivan ship "This is FNS Andromeda. Shivan vessel, please state your intentions! Firing in subspace may cause a wormhole to collapse! We also never knew why you started a war with us! Please explain! Shivan vessel, please respond!"

After like a minute, when captain was on bridge already, Shivans actually responded:

"Terran vessel. Our intentions are clear. We don't hesitate to destroy species who uses its technological superiority to annihilate others! We are doing just the same now!"

"Explain! We are allied with other species! We don't destroy the weaker, but help them! We helped Capellans survive! Why…"

"We won't explain our reasons. Know that we are telling the truth and we won't forgive you your actions! We are firing now! Good bye, murderers."

I noticed that 8 tentacles of the ship began to move. Few seconds later, the beams situated on the tentacles fired and their aim was FNS Aegis. After 5 second shot, I looked at the Aegis damage report. The shields were down and hull condition was very bad. In no time, hostile vessel shot again. I looked at the display – Aegis was breaking up. Enemy has also aimed 2 of his tentacles into civilian transports destroying the biggest two in one second. 17 000 people died….

"For Christ's sake, we need to run, sir!", I shouted.

"Where?" , Chelwetyn asked

"Into subspace! I am redirecting the power from beams to subspace drive now! Engaging in ten seconds!"

"Michael, are you insane?!?"

"Yes, sir! I'd rather die from subspace than from this ….Sathanas. Oh my God, they are directing the weapons at us! Straight for our engines! We are dead! I am speeding up the process, jumping now!"

FNS Andromeda was slowly going into new wormhole created by activating subspace drive during the flight through another wormhole. Sathanas has fired milliseconds too late, engines already were like few meters closer to wormhole, so Andromeda didn't get hit and it vanished completely in unknown.

For 2 minutes the superbattleship ceased to exist. It was going through different wormholes, but they led somewhere and Andromeda emerged out of subspace, critically damaged, with all decks reporting serious injuries, even with some fatalities.

I regained my consciousness, feeling terrible pain and lying on the floor of bridge. I touched the place on my body where the source of pain was – oh shit, I was bleeding but this was just a scratch from hitting the console while I was falling down. I stood up and looked at the immediate surroundings. Captain was OK, I could see him giving orders. There were 2 people still unconscious, however. I was trying to get to one of them but suddenly something has fell on my head and there was darkness only, again.

In the meantime, Alex Chelwetyn had his hands full. Situation was out of control. Shield generators have blown up, there was a hull breach on deck 3, life support failed on deck 5- the center of ship. People were running from there, trying to help the injured without professional medical knowledge. Sickbay was cut off because of fire on deck 4. The computer systems responsible for remote control from bridge failed.

"Try to stop the fire on a way to sickbay! Redirect Omega team there! We also need life support on deck 5 back online! Send engineering team Alpha to environmental controls pronto!" , captain was trying to handle the situation the best he could. "Michael, are you there?!? Damn, he is unconscious. Sarah [navigation specialist], take medkit and try to help him. Others seem to be regaining consciousness. Mr. Akbar, [first officer] go down there. They need somebody at deck 3. The hull breach is very minor, but we are losing life support there slowly."

"Yes, sir." , he replied and then ran to the deck 3. The team was already repairing the hull. Everything seemed to be fine until one man proceeded carelessly… and was suddenly sucked out of the ship with some atmosphere and his spacesuit hit the sharp piece of metal from the hull. Ahmed Akbar couldn't look as the man died few seconds later. The others have stopped working. To make them continue the job, he said "You see what happens if you make even one small bad step. Focus, for the god's sake.". Soon, with luck, they managed to stop the breach so Akbar went to deck 4. The fire has been already stopped but the damage was enormous. Whole corridor was totally devastated. Despite this, people were being transferred to sickbay from now on. However, deck 5 was still unavailable. He had no idea how heavy the loses were…Life support was restored several minutes later.

I was awake. The first person I saw was Sarah. She smiled and I returned it in response. My first thought was "Captain, how many casualties?"

"167 wounded and 28 dead"

"Oh God… It's all my fault… If I had warned you about the pink dot earlier, it all wouldn't have passed. All ships would be fully ready for combat…"

"No, Michael. No one would have suspected…"

"Sir, I am not suitable for tactical officer commission. I want to res-"

"No. This is you who managed to jump the ship before Shivans destroyed us all!"

"Sir, please…I want to resign."

"No, mr. Salmon. We need you here. You will be tasked to determine Shivans' reasons. I will give you full access to our database, even to most classified events. You will search for, no matter how deeply hidden, point in history, in which we annihilated any species. Sarah will take care of determination of our position. We are in no shape for normal combat, need to rendezvous with Federation fleet and report about what happened. "

"Aye, sir." – I still was at the point of crying and when I reminded of the crew proud to be on "Andromeda" , something broke in my heart. I was shedding tears. I let all of them down. And it's all my fault. No matter what. I was responsible for the death of hell knows how many people as the highest ranked officer on the bridge at that moment...

"Michael, get down to work NOW!", Chelwetyn shouted, stopping my thoughts. The only thing I was able to do was to follow orders, so I came to database room on deck 7.

I began studying the records in the newest to oldest order. I went through all of the Federation documents about other species. The foundation of Federation took place in 2249 and after working 9 hours I have found nothing. I came to study earlier records.

I have been working 15 hours and I should take some sleep now - I thought. However, something didn't let me to. I was searching through all the documents, almost asleep as I was back at twenty-second century, the time of United Nations and Earth's bad times of environmental crisis. Weird, I thought, there was no record of events between 2150 -2175 so I was searching the earlier entries. Suddenly, I found a document from 2131, very insignificant according to the database. It read:

"From: RDA Transport Management, Thomas Turville

To: United Nations Transport Administration, George Brandstone

Topic: Permission for place in the orbit.

Date: 23/11/2131 13:11

Good morning, sir. As a chief of RDA Company Transport Management, I would like to ask you for permission for our ships (ISV class, details included in attachment) to have some place in the orbit of Earth. The coordinates aren't important. Our motivation is the possibility of sending ships to Alpha Centauri system in order to explore it. As You may know, one the moons of gas gigant Polyphemus, orbiting Alpha Centauri A, called Pandora, has rich unobtainum deposits. Its mining would effect in possibility of resolving the energy crisis. It isn't yet confirmed, but there is a possibility of intelligent life on Pandora. Our explorers have brought us gossips about species called Na'vi or something similar, having blue skin. I believe that it's in the best interests of Earth to find out more about this species. We could discuss the details of permission and also about our opportunities on Pandora on the meeting. I would accept any time of it.

I am looking forward to hearing from You, sir

Thomas Turville"

I couldn't believe my eyes. I needed to read this message twice before I realized what its meaning was. It was perfectly clear now why there were no messages from 2150 to 2175... and nothing interesting from 2132. They wanted to hide what they had done. They wanted to be clear in front of the history. This was just wrong… No one in Federation has ever heard about intelligent species in Alpha Centauri. I was taught that it was a great disappointment for humans that the closest to Earth star system had only flora and fauna. No traces of intelligence. Those guys from twenty-second century managed to get away with this! I had no idea how did the Shivans know but now I fully understood their hatred for us. They also must have studied the databases of our captured vessels and find no traces of guilt.

Overwhelmed by the experiences of that day, I couldn't stop shedding even more tears. After a while, I decided to contact the captain. He couldn't believe what he heard. He came to database room to have this revelation confirmed. The only thing he was able to do was to hide his head in his hands and say:

"Michael, do you know that you or me may be .. descendants of those murderers? Shivans are absolutely right. I can't imagine people hiding the crime of destroying entire species, which was probably in early stages of technological development… First intelligent life forms humankind had ever encountered… We never knew…Well, let's go to bridge since I doubt we will be able to sleep for a long time."

**Earth**** 07/07/2160**

"Nice, progress in "Pandora's Box" construction is outstanding! They will have whole armor ready in 3 months' time.. The construction of other machinery is going also really well.", UN president was very content. "I need to examine the progress of our soldiers learning about hostile environment now."

Hell Training Complex, situated in Amazonia, was the worst place for any soldier to be. Command was ordering everyone to do things which were ridiculous to take up by any normal human.

Sergeant John Prawny was very angry with himself. He made a pathetic thing. He shouldn't have to apply for this. Nightmare! 12,5-miles of jogging in the jungle everyday. Learning about Pandoran creatures and tests from strategy of dealing with them. Taking part in regular episodes of "Man vs. Wild", unwillingly. Prawny was having such a thoughts while being on his shooting training session. Suddenly, somebody has entered the range field. He turned his head and saw no one but the president of UN. He stood to report as fast as he could and said in the name of all of the present soldiers:

"We are honored by your presence here, Mr. President." He just couldn't add anything more. Why the hell would president be visiting normal soldiers? Doesn't he have much more important things to do?

" I am here to check your progress in preparing for the expedition. Mind if you show me your skills?"

"Not at all, sir. Are we beginning now?"

After inspection, President was really content. He was sure that the expedition's start would take place before summer of 2161.

Videolog entry #368

RDA Management, Operation "Buttercup"

Name: Thoris, Alice

Date: 17/07/2161

Time: 02:49

Today is probably the most important day in RDA history. Fleet is beginning the flight to Pandora today. I, myself, will take part in the expedition of over 15 000 people. The fleet contains of "Pandora's Box" destroyer and 20 Athena class cruisers. There are over 140 Scorpions mark 10 in very huge cargo places, 5 C-21 Dragons and 40% of soldiers have their own AMP suits. There is no way the savages can destroy such a force. Even commanded by guy knowing the basics of human tactics. I am going to take the last look at the city and then to pack myself. Alice Thoris, signing off. Don't worry, it isn't my last Videolog. With any luck, I will show again, approximately... in April or May."

**FNS Andromeda, location unknown. **

After we had appeared on the bridge, all officers got puzzled. I was fully aware that they could react this way. Traces of tears on my face and captain gnawing his nails were untypical behavior for Federation Fleet personnel – at least on duty. Sarah couldn't help her curiosity so she asked captain:

"Sir, what's the matter?" This kind of question was strictly forbidden while addressing a superior officer but captain didn't seem to care and just replied:

"The Shivans aren't lying."

"What?"

"I won't be explaining it right now. It's enough to say-" He couldn't continue anymore so Sarah changed the topic:

"Basing on the star coordinates, I calculated our present position. We are approximately 3 light years from Deneb, system without any wormholes. Distance to Earth is 1415 light years. The closest wormhole is….in 62 Cygni, 578 light years from here(*) and it leads to Aldebaran! System under Shivan control right now!"

"We are going there. We need to get through them. We will have the element of surprise. No human has been so far in the whole space travel history so they won't be expecting us! How much time do we need to reach that wormhole?"

"About 5 months and 2 weeks, sir."

"Well, this is going to be a long journey…"

I suddenly reminded of something making me feel even worse.

"Sir, the estimated time of Federation destruction was 5 months.. We may find ourselves the last existing humans. I am not sure if it is wise to return to Shivan area of space. It may be a better idea to settle down in some nearby system. I don't think the Shivans are here but hell knows."

"Mr. Salmon, are you suggesting abandoning those who we swore to protect at all costs?"

"No sir, I am just saying that we may be too late to protect anyone. "

"No, we are going back. We can't just run. Sarah, lay in a course for 62 Cygni. Full engines."

"Aye, aye, sir.

"Well, sir…I need some rest now, even if I know I won't be able to sleep. Permission to be relieved", I said.

"Granted."

I arrived at my quarters and I didn't know what to do next so I just laid down on a bed and the worst began. I could do nothing but imagine Shivans bombarding our planets and the humans using nuclear missile to kill children feeding animals. It was unbearable. I slowly stood up and went to sickbay. They had their hands full with treating the wounded from our last jump but one of the doctors came to see me and asked what was wrong with me. I said that it was really wrong in my neural system. I needed to describe my feelings in detail. As a result, I was given some kind of medicines making me peaceful. In normal circumstances, I wouldn't hesitate to call them drugs but this time they really helped me. I only hoped I wouldn't become addicted to them. Perhaps the long, boring journey will slowly alleviate my pain. Indeed, there was nothing happening on the ship. 6 months of daily routine without any significant events were passing really slowly and affected the morale in very bad way. Combat simulations and days off duty weren't helping at all. Many people began to fall into alcoholism…

**FNS Andromeda, 183 days later.**

Finally, we got to 62 Cygni and were ready to jump to Aldebaran.

"All hands, battle stations", Chelwetyn ordered. This was the command we were waiting for over 6 months.

Several minutes later, ship used the wormhole leading to potentially dangerous Shivan space. FNS Andromeda emerged from subspace ready to fire with the new beam cannons every second. However, there was something very wrong there.

"Sir, sensors aren't picking up any hostiles in the whole system. We don't see any single vessel," I decided to tell the news to Chelwetyn.

"How come?!? Scan for any battle traces. I have bad feelings about this. Check the asteroid field also. Are there any traces of our mining operation here? Shivans are known to use our stations they seized before."

"Sir, nothing. Sensors indicate that the system is totally empty. And it always was. I have only one possible explanation – we are in the past and I have no idea when."

"Agreed. However, Federation began mining here in 2386, according to our database. If so, we are at least 200 years in the past. We will be going to Earth and try to overhear their communications so we know the time. However, we can't change the timeline. It could have drastic consequences on the whole galaxy. That's why we will be keeping a low profile. Now we will use the wormhole to jump to Vega. It always was the most defended colony of Terrans but it doesn't matter now. From there we will travel to Earth, 25 light years, it's only few days! Come on, you know there isn't a wormhole! You always travelled this way to visit our dead Homeplanet."

We passed Vega very fast and we had our revelations confirmed. No human being has visited Vega ever before. We knew we were earlier than 2316 now. Several days later we reached Solar System. There were some ships travelling through it so we tried to avoid them and make it as closest to Earth as possible without being detected. With luck, we managed to get into range of orbital satellites and picked up the global TV transmissions. We didn't want to access the Internet because of huge chances of detection so were waiting for the News program. Imagine our astonishment when we found out that it was 15/04/2161. I looked at the captain. His face was full of anger.

"Mr. Salmon. Please open channel on all of the radio frequencies."

"Sir, are you sure we have to effect the timeline?"

"Just do it!"

"Aye, sir! With fucking pleasure!"

"This is captain Alexander Chelwetyn of Federation Navy Superbattleship Andromeda. I want to contact the government of Earth right away," he began his speech and then added to me "Take place in the lower orbit and ready weapons."

In the meantime, we received a transmission.

"Unidentified vessel, please state your intentions. This is United Nations Military Command and we will let you contact the government if you let us escort you."

"Agreed."

Several minutes later, some ships appeared in our vicinity. They were quite small as for our standards. They took up the escort positions and then, we received a transmission from UN President, John Banshee.

"Let us welcome you to our world. You are the first space travelling life forms we have every encountered. I feel honored."

Captain's reaction was really predictable. He opened a video channel and spoke "As you can see, I am human and whole crew of this ship belong to your race."

"How?!?"

"We are sorry to sound crazy, but in fact, we are from the future."

"How?!?"

"Doesn't matter. What matters us most is what the fuck are you going to do – or maybe you have done – in Alpha Centauri, bastard."

President, who also activated video in response, began to feel fear.

"Our first peaceful expedition was entirely destroyed by the race of natives. We have sent a second expedition several months ago in order to-" He realized what he had said.

"Wow. You know that this is the end of you. I am sending the information of your crime and reasons for your secret bases to all TV stations and all over the Internet."

"Open fire, destroy them!", president shouted.

We were hit by some light beam cannons and the escorting ships began firing missiles. However, we had shields and nothing of this was dangerous.

"Return fire, Michael"

I aimed at the 4 closest ships. One beam cannon on one and pressed fire button. Half of the pathetic vessels were destroyed. Several seconds later, we began firing on bigger ships. I detected over 300 nuclear missiles launching from planet into our direction.

"Mr. Akbar, launch antirockets on my mark. Trust me." As the missiles began closing to each other in the higher parts of atmosphere, I shouted "Now! Sigma plan!"

We were launching the antirockets constantly. Our laser turrets also joined the fight but were totally useless. That's why I decided to override the automatic control and switch to manual. I took control of 4 of the portside ones. I tried to shoot the missiles being in centre so they could blow up and detonate the others. It was working well but there was simply not enough time. We destroyed 294 of 308. Atmosphere of Earth began to be one big blast zone. I couldn't imagine pollution of the environment after such a catastrophe. 294 nuclear explosions above the continent of farming – Africa? Frankly, I stopped to care, since the other 14 missiles got through the atmosphere and hit us. The whole ship shook hard. I was sure that enemies were aiming blindly because they didn't know the design of Andromeda. Unfortunately, they had a lucky guess. All missiles hit the into the shields at one point – near portbow generator of them. It made it to overload and in a result the generator was sending faulty responses to computer core. It was connected with other shields generators and the fatal error in program made them all to stop working.

"Sir, shields are down!", I reported.

"How so?!? Old nucs could disable them?!?"

"Yes, sir. We are getting hits from the other ships now. I am launching our rockets now, in addition to beam fire. "

FNS Andromeda started a cannonade from all of its missile launchers towards 10 remaining UN ships making holes in their hulls. Then beams were doing the rest. In less than 2 minutes, whole UN fleet was down and whole arsenal of their nuclear missiles neutralized. However, Andromeda suffered minor damage to its engines. It was impossible to leave the Solar System for the time being. Chelwetyn decided that during the repairs we will destroy all of the human space bases, satellites, all of the major airports on Earth's surface and military industrial centers. Of course, firstly, we gently asked the UN to evacuate before destroying. Then our beams were doing their job. We believed that UN won't be able to return to space for a very long time, possibly hundred of years. It took us 12 days to accomplish. The only thing we were afraid was the pollution. Radioactive cloud would make terrible damage but it was President's fault. We were only defending ourselves. At least, we were sure that he won't be on his commission any longer. Public will just kill him. Frankly, I didn't care about him.

We left the Solar System on 01/05/2161 and we decided to visit Alpha Centauri. To avenge the death of innocent species which had been annihilated in the same year. It could be concluded from Banshee's words. At least we were sure to meet the fleet which had done this. And we were certain what to do. Destroy them all. We had no idea how big changes had we done to the timeline but we were motivated to finish it off, at all costs. It was estimated that we reach Alpha Centauri in less than 36 hours.

**Alpha Centauri 29/04/2161**

The journey was over. At last. Alice could see Pandora from Pandora's Box's window. She could also observe several Athenas moving to land on the surface and set up a new base. They were there! This was the end of savages and that traitor Jake Sully! Then she decided to go to the bridge to talk with general Josh Mackenzie, commanding officer of the operation. Thoris wanted to get to surface as soon as possible and talk admiral into landing of Pandora's Box.

After short debate, he agreed and told that offensive will begin immediately after setting up the base to get things done.

In the meantime, on the surface, bulldozers were already making place around the landing place of Athenas. They had powerful escort – 10 soldiers in AMPs were protecting each. After 24 hours of preparations, the location was under full control of Expedition force.

**Pandora, Na'vi POV **

Hamnak was one of the best hunters in Omticaya clan. That day was very important to his tribe so he wanted to hunt something special. Suddenly, he found a herd of _Yeriks _running straight towards him. They seemed to be very scared. He thought that there may be a _Palulukan_ chasing them so he tried to find a hiding place. However, after waiting for like 5 minutes, nothing happened. Hexapedes were long gone and there was no trace of Thanator so he came out and went into the direction from the animals were running. After 60-minute march he cold hear the machines destroying the forest. He carefully passed through them and like Apache scout in the history of Earth, managed to get close to one of the Athenas. He knew basic English so he could understand the solders talking about destroying of his species. Having gathered enough information, he slowly retreated and came back to Omaticayas' Hometree, what took him almost 5 hours. It was evening and there was a feast in order to honor the new warriors. As he stepped into the centre of crowd, all silenced, feeling that he had something important to say.

"_Ma Olo'eyktan, Sawtute zola'u nìmum.__ Txur nìtxan nì'ul__.(1)"_

After Hamnak had told the news, Jake felt like somebody hit him hard in stomach. This couldn't be, it was too early! He dropped that thought and focused on calming down the clan. Afterwards, he began a speech.

"_Ma Smukan sì Smuke! Ayoeng zene hivawnu Omati'kayat!"__(2) _We need to fight once again_. Aysawtute_ are back in much greater force so we need to reunite all of the clans again. Go to them and tell that times of Great Sorrow are back and call them to come to us on the Great Meeting. I, _Toruk Makto, _am appealing to all of the People! The fate of our race is at stake here. Other clans' _Olo'eyktan_ need to bring all of their warriors! Now go before it's too late. "

"_Set, ma Olo'eyktan_," warriors replied enthusiastically.

As soon as they have gone, Jake went to secluded place deeper in the rainforest. He knew that if humans returned, they were sure of winning.

Suddenly, he felt a soft touch on his cheek. It was Neytiri's hand. He was unaware that she was following him.

"My Jake, please. I am here and I love you. I feel pain when you do."

"Neytiri, I love you, too. I am just considering what can we do to prevent us from the destruction. I feel so miserable because I am the Olo'eyktan who has no idea-."

"You have a strong heart. It will tell you what to do. And we will follow you."

"The problem is that my heart tells me to go into one big battle which we are to lose anyway."

"Then we will do it. Eywa will provide. She protects the balance and there wouldn't be any balance if we lost."

"Neytiri, you don't understand. Even Eywa won't be able to destroy the space vessels of that size which are able to land on a surface. Hamnak was positive that there were 6 vessels of unknown design for me out there. He heard that the biggest was "Pandora's Box". This name makes me scared."

"Why?"

"Very long ago, when Aysawtute were at the same level of technology as Na'vi are now, they were creating very interesting legends connected to their religious beliefs – the believed in many different gods. Perhaps the name of this moon in English was inspired by this story. It was about Pandora, female who had opened a box containing all the kinds of misery because of her curiosity. However, she hadn't let out the feeling of hope due to closing the box before it was free. Pandora's Box symbol means befalling of calamity. "

"They gave their ship a very proud name, then. I must admit that I didn't know about the ancient times of Aysawtute. Will you tell me about them someday?" After finishing of this question, she kissed him. He laughed and said only one word "_Irayo"._

"We will get through this, Jake. I promise."

"Yes, we will. Well, tomorrow, the meeting will be held. In the meantime, I need to retake Toruk, which is free now. I will be going now. Neytiri, know that no matter what happens, I will be thinking about you. Please, go to Mo'at and pray with her for Eywa's help."

Next day, warriors and leaders of all the clans began gathering near the Omaticaya Hometree. At the evening the meeting began and the new strategy has been developed. The plan of battle is to retreat until all of the clans appear . Afterwards, use massive Ikran force in the middle of mountains and have some missile launchers placed in the caves. Norman found some rockets in the premises of Hell's gate. Jake didn't know why the humans didn't simply use the old base but, actually, he didn't care. Ground forces with Direhorses were tasked to engage AMPs defensively. Only if they would be trying to close to missile launchers. With battle plan ready, it was easier for Jake to sleep.

**Expeditio****n Force POV, 01/05/2161**

Alice was overwhelmed by the mobilization. Scouts have brought info about the positions of main savages' military camp. Full scale offensive was beginning. Scorpions and Dragons starting and 3 Athenas taking off. Pandora's Box and other 9 Athenas were remaining in base as a reinforcement. The other 8 Athenas were in the orbit, ready for support with beam fire. General Mackenzie was commanding the offensive safely from the bridge of Pandora's Box. He was drinking coffee and laughing because of the last reports from Intel. According to them, the savages were retreating towards Hallelujah mountains and big caves there. It seemed that they had something to fear about. His force was pursuing them slowly, aircraft was staying in a close vicinity to ground troops. In the evening, after almost 5 hours of tactical retreat, Na'vi received the reinforcements from all clans and reached the caves. Therefore, they were ready to fight. First Scorpions were welcomed with sudden missile attacks. They couldn't do evasive maneuvers, since they were too close to each other. Before they split up, 10 of them were destroyed. However, the next missiles weren't so effective. Furthermore, Scorpions began attacking the caves causing them to collapse. After 15-minute exchange of fire, all of the missile launchers in Na'vi possession were neutralized and hiding places destroyed. Warriors with direhorses and regular infantry didn't have any use so their leader ordered them to move into jungle and engage coming AMPs and human infantry. In the meantime, Jake, seeing what was going on, decided to attack with Ikrans and his Toruk as soon as the battle in jungle has started. The uncountable amount of Banshees hit the Scorpions, Dragons and Athenas. The worst thing was that Athenas were virtually indestructible. And they were firing some kind of lasers. Na'vi were destroying Scorpions really fast but the casualties were way too high. Ground troops also were losing to much more powerful AMPs. Even wild animals, such as Thanators, free Banshees, Toruks and other Pandoran creatures couldn't help the Na'vi to win. Jake was seeing that his army is getting much smaller with every second. His brave attacks resulting in destroying 3 Dragons the same way as in the battle few years before changed nothing. Suddenly, Pandora's Box escorted by 9 Athenas appeared and opened fire from missile launchers and beams at the same time

"This is it," he whispered to himself. "Na'vi and all the ones I love, the world I love, it's all gone."

**FNS Andromeda POV**.

We entered the Alpha Centauri system near Alpha Centauri B, K0V star type. The first thing I looked at were sensor readings. They detected 8 vessels orbiting Pandora and weapon energy signatures on the moon. Several seconds later, I knew that there was a battle going on Pandora!

"Captain! They are annihilating the natives as we speak! We can't just sit here and watch! At full intersystem engines' power we won't be able to come on time. I am increasing the speed to 130%. Fuck safety procedures."

" Wow.. Do it! It isn't a coincidence, Michael. It was the higher power which wants us to rescue them! We don't have operational shields but we will do all what is necessary to stop this. Here and now."

Computers were protesting but I increased the power to even 135%, more than I told captain about.

"Sir, the ships from orbit are hailing us.", Sarah suddenly told.

"Open a channel and increase speed to 140%."

I did it and a while after the Damage Control reported about several conduits blowing up but nothing serious. In the meantime, I was listening to the talk.

"Unknown vessel, please identify yourself."

"This is Federation Navy Superbattleship Andromeda under command of captain Alexander Chelwetyn. Surrender at once or be destroyed."

"What? We have no hostile intensions. Wait, you are human and your ship definitely isn't ours. Who are you?"

"SURRENDER NOW, MURDERERS! The ghosts from the future will kill you all if you don't persuade your guys on the moon to stop the battle and contact me with your admiral or whoever commanding this shit."

"This is operation of killing savages who attacked our unarmed people."

"Oh, really? I reckon it's an operation of wiping out the whole race and then hiding it in the logs. Your admiral, you have 20 seconds to contact him."

After like 15 seconds, face of general Mackenzie appeared on the screens of Andromeda.

"Who are you and what the hell do you want?!?"

"Surrender now, bastard, or be destroyed!"

"I have no clue who you are but Mackenzie doesn't surrender, even to guys from the future. Out."

"Very well," I added after the talk of our captain with their commanding officer was over. " I guess that diplomacy has failed. We will be in the firing range in approximately 1 minute."

"Fire at will as soon as we are in range and make our way into the atmosphere. In the meantime, I want Sarah to prepare shuttles with oxygen bottles and all the things needed for the evacuation, just in case."

I reduced the speed to normal value and opened fire from all of the beams. I also launched big amount of rockets with high penetration rate. I was aiming at the reactors. After one salvo from all of our weapons, all of the 8 ships were destroyed. However, they managed to inflict quite significant damage to us. They knocked down environmental controls so the temperature on the ship began to rise. In 2 hours, it will reach about 55 degree Celsius. They also infected our computer system with some kind of destructive virus. I had no idea how could they prepare computer viruses – as a weapon against natives? I didn't think so. I believed that the virus was in their computers the whole time but it didn't affect their system in any significant way because they had different operating systems. Ours were incompatible with theirs, so the virus' commands could be misread by the system's kernel. In fact, we began experiencing massive failures all over the ship but we still were flying through the atmosphere straight into the battle zone. We couldn't fail. If we did, I wouldn't be able to live any longer. After several seconds, sensors went down. Communication system was also malfunctioning. However, we remained on the previous course and in a matter of one minute, we could see dragon-like creatures fighting with different kind of aircraft. In the forest below, the horse riders were losing against soldiers equipped with robots. I overrode the programs for missile launchers and took over them myself. I began firing straight into the centre of enemy formation in the forest, trying not to hit the natives if possible and in no time, hostile troops were annihilated. In the meantime, on the second screen, captain was doing miracles, manually directing the beams. He was massacring enemy's helicopters without hitting any of the creatures. However, enemy cruisers (the same class as in the orbit) were firing at us, slowly penetrating our hull. I decided to take up a desperate step – firing totally untested weaponry, even in space. I launched the only 2 antimatter warheads we had onto the centre of enemy's formation. An effect was overwhelming. Then, I sent the last 5 conventional rockets we had to the enemy's base on the land. They wiped it out completely. No survivors for 100%. The blast zone was too big.

**Jake's POV**

Jake couldn't believe his eyes. He had no idea what the hell was going on. There was some kind of enormous ship massacring the attacking humans, both on ground and in air, in a matter of seconds. This was really weird. The design was totally different than solutions used on Earth so he assumed that the alien species came to help his people. However, he could see the alien ship experiencing some problems with fighting the cruisers. Norman's and Max's computer virus! Damn, it was unsuccessful against the hostiles but it could be ruining the alien ship's computer systems! That's why they had trouble targeting! He felt terribly. It was his idea to write the virus. And someone who came to help him could die because of his stupidity! His thoughts were suddenly stopped because alien ship fired some kind of unbelievable weapon. The air was exploding around the going missiles. The explosion affected the alien ship as well. He could see a big hole in its hull. Then the missiles reached their targets and, wow, all the remaining 8 of Athenas were destroyed! By just 2 rockets! What the hell, there were humans falling from inside the ship. It couldn't be! But there was no time to think. Pandora's Box, which had been pursuing some of the Ikran clans retreating, returned and began firing straight into the hole in the strange ship. It was becoming very huge. And there was Neytiri around that hole! In the line of fire! Her new banshee was dying. He began flying there immediately as fast as possible hoping that the other humans will do something instead of being destroyed by Pandora's Box.

**My POV**

"Sir, the manual weapons overrides aren't working anymore. Virus is penetrating everything! I have also got reports about the very huge hole. The new hostile vessel is firing into it. We can't destroy it without weapons control. Decks 6 to 10 don't exist." I introduced the situation to captain shortly.

"Michael, along with the virus, we were supplied with some useful info stolen by it from their databases. It is possible to construct a body which won't need the oxygen bottles to breathe here. We can create bodies of natives. My point is that you go to sickbay and use the last working turbolift to transfer mobile medlab to a shuttle and go away with it. Take also some spare parts. I give you 12 minutes. Then… I will ram the hostile vessel. I am ordering a full evacuation. All go except for me."

"Sir, you can't do that. I will think of something. This is just ridiculous-"

"That's an order."

"I won't follow that order. I have already let die too many people to add you to this list, sir."

"If I don't ram them, they will destroy us and then annihilate the whole species. Our whole crusade would go on waste."

"I understand now, sir. Godspeed, sir. It was the greatest honor to serve under your command."

"Do it! Get out of here now!"

I ran into sickbay in less than 2 minutes, found very big box with medlab. I pressed the button to make it move into turbolift, then I found a canister with deuterium and a box with spare parts. Several seconds later, I was on my route to shuttlebay. In no time, I had all things packed onto a transporting shuttle, powered up the engines and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I realized that there has been only one shuttle used so far. 11 minutes have passed already so I was trying to be as fast as possible. I used maximum afterburners. I didn't care that I used my whole fuel. Escape was the only thing important. Andromeda was already moving in the direction of Pandora's Box, shaking hard in the process. I was suspecting that the only thing working at this point were engines. I managed to get away from both ships to a safe distance by the time of 12 minutes since my last seeing with captain. Then, suddenly, Andromeda increased speed to maximum and rammed Pandora's Box with enormous kinetic energy. Both ships exploded immediately. No one from hostile ship had a chance to escape. Shuttle sensors didn't register any escape pod, anyway. All enemies were destroyed. There wasn't any single human being from twenty-second century on Pandora. And the natives were rescued.

As soon as I have landed in some part of the rainforest, I put on my oxygen bottle and began trying to set up a medlab. I was successful. I was ready to connect it with deuterium canister…when I realized something. The canister was too light. I couldn't imagine how…but actually…it was empty!

I came back to shuttle and waited for other survivors from our ship to come. After 2 hours, all gathered by my place. It came out that there were only 9 survivors, including me, from the whole crew of Andromeda, which was normally 1040. When the other 8 got to know that the canister with fuel is empty and that I had used all of my shuttle fuel, they went mad. They have crashed their shuttle and have barely escaped with their lives. As the highest ranked officer, I ordered them to go hunting and gave them some weapons. I, myself, began research into a new source of fuel and discovered some kind of energy mineral underground. I realized that after conversion it could be used as alternate source of fuel for the medlab. However, suddenly, I had some unexpected visitors. I could see 3 natives closing into my position. One female and 2 males. I was unarmed and so did they, so there was no danger. The first thing I saw was female picking up the sample I had been studying before and telling in quite well accented English "This is the source of our tragedy. They came here to get this. That's why so many of us died."

I felt like someone had hit me in stomach, head and broke my leg. So it won't be possible to run this medlab. It would be the worst insult to the natives. Female spoke again:

"Kaltxì, or hello, unknown Sky Person. We are Na'vi. We don't know you but you helped us win the battle with other Sky People for no reason. You lost your ship, we saw how brave you were-"

"It was incredible. You rammed their biggest vessel when you couldn't fight! Tell me if it was fault of a virus which penetrated your computer core. Is it why did you lose control over your weapons? I am Norman, by the way", interrupted one of the men.

"Yes, the computer virus was the main cause of losing our vessel."

"I am really sorry to hear that. Me and my colleague, who isn't present here, wrote this program to give us advantage over them. I didn't predict that other, friendly vessel would be infected, too. However, it's my fault. Mr.?"

"Salmon. Michael Salmon."

"Mr. Salmon, our scouts told us about 8 other survivors from your ship. Are they all?

"Yes."

"From how many crewmembers?"

"1040. Captain, who was the one to ram Pandora's Box, had ordered evacuation, but the damage was too catastrophic"

"Oh my God…"

"Mr. Norman, please. I am in no shape for this kind of talk. The last half of a year was devastating for me. I could call myself a wreck of human, in fact."

"Sorry.. Getting back, can you tell me where are you from and why have you tried to defend the other species from aggression of your own one?"

"I am from the future. 2579, exactly. Got here because we were at war with another species. This species thought that we had annihilated another species before but we didn't know anything about it. It was perfectly hidden. It was destruction of Na'vi, by the way. You won't understand how did we get here so I will just say that we were running from ship more powerful than ours and by accident we got into another place in galaxy at another time. We got to Earth, which took us about 6 months, to determine the time and we found out that it was the time of your annihilation. We talked with UN President about this and he got pissed off so we had a battle. We destroyed all of the Earth's military things. They fired their whole arsenal nuclear on us, but we made it. They have a radioactive cloud from their own missiles

over Africa. Their whole industry has been destroyed. I believe that they won't be coming back to space for at least 100 years. We came here to catch the guys who had wiped you out but instead, we discovered that we could rescue you. And we did. For a very high price, no doubt. I also made a terrible mistake. I brought the medlab here to make same kind of bodies that you have and transfer the consciousnesses there, but I took empty canister with fuel. I guess we will need to stay in bottles with oxygen until they run out. Then it will be the end."

"Hang on. Isn't there any way that you could do it? I am Jake, by the way.", second man said.

"I am afraid not. Anyways, it was nice to meet you. I need some peace now. It is sad what humans can do for energy resource…"

"My name is Neytiri. You seem to be different than other Sky People. You took our side without any interests. Do you know that Jake and Norman also were Sky People, from our time, who took our side? Eywa transferred their minds into their bodies of Avatars."

"Thanks for info. We would also like to live here like you but it's my fault and I took the wrong canister with fuel. Please excuse me now."

"It's all right. We will come back later."

As soon as they have left my shuttle, Neytiri said:

"This man is going mad. He faults himself for all of the bad things. He may do something stupid. I will stay here peeping him. You go, tell the clan about the actions of other Sky People, from other times."

I couldn't sit peacefully, so I left about 5 minutes later. I didn't take any weapon with me. Even at night. Frankly, I was wondering what happened to 8 crewmembers, but who cares. I was just going where my legs were leading me. At some point, I found myself a bit tired so I laid down in the middle of rainforest. Luckily, there was some bioluminescence so I could see something. I hid my head in my hands and began shedding tears, again. Then, I realized that I was speaking very loudly.. to myself of course "Well, this is it. We won't be coming back to the future but we will need to stay here. To slowly die. Like the others before. Like Sarah. Sarah.. And this is my fault. Mrs. Huang, expert on genetics who is one of the nine, won't be able to create the natives bodies for us to survive. I took empty canister. I let all of them down many times. Way too many… Well, and this energetic mineral sample the woman had been keeping before she greeted me… Humans came here after it, ready to commit a crime to have it. This is unbelievable that it is the thing we desperately need now as alternate energy source. However, I am not going to be like other humans the Na'vi know. Depleting their natural resources only because of my needs, no way…"

Something disturbed my thoughts. I heard a terrible roar and then, a big creature appeared from nowhere. It had an armored neck and back, a massive distensible jaw with scary teeth and black skin. I assumed that this was some kind of Pandoran predator which wanted to eat me as a dinner.

"Well, that's perfectly OK, buddy," I said loudly. "Go ahead, I deserve it."

I laid still and closed my eyes. I felt as the creature was slowly approaching me. Suddenly, I heard a strange whizz. Afterwards, the creature roared and fell onto its back. I opened my eyes and I noticed 2 arrows in it. Then I could see the same woman who had visited me before. She hissed, looking at the creature and then came to me slowly.

"Salmon, are you OK?"

"Yes," what the hell was her name…"Yes. Thank you.. Neytiri."

"Why didn't you run?"

"I suppose you heard me talking to myself so you know why."

"Yes. Tell me please why didn't you tell us that you need this resource. You rescued us and are not like other Sky People with their technology."

"We shouldn't use the thing which caused all of this for our personal benefit. And we would use it to create the exact bodies from your species for us. More sophisticated than Avatars. Would you want to add newcomers who have no idea how to live in any kind of forest to your tribe? Are you aware that we are from very far future and we are space soldiers, nothing more? The only thing I can do is to shot to other space vessels using computers to target. You won't be able to teach me…"

"You have strong will and that is the most important thing. You will be given the mineral and then we will let you create your new bodies and transfer your consciousness there. You can do it either by your technology or you may choose us to help you. Eywa has transferred some minds into new bodies already.'

"Well.. if you put it this way. Me and my team will get working on it in this case. If it comes to transfer of consciousness, I will choose your way. I stopped trusting the technology. Thanks for saving my life."

"It's everyday routine here. We are all helping each other. And this is you who managed to stop Sky People. Thanks to your efforts, they won't be coming here from their dead planet for a very long time. You destroyed something on their planet. What was it?"

"Objects connected with coming of ships here."

"I understand… And how did their planet look like?"

"Terribly. However, it was nothing compared to Earth in my times. Before creating of the Federation, Earth became inhabitable. Humans destroyed their planet totally. Out there in the future, we have trips there to show our young generations what happens if we don't treat the nature friendly."

"It is very sad… Killing of their own Mother. "

"Yes. We learned from their mistakes but we couldn't forgive them hiding the information about annihilating of Na'vi. Do you know that, at school, I was taught that after reaching Alpha Centauri, it was a great disappointment for us not to discover any intelligent life forms?"

"Does it mean that you changed things which will happen in the future?"

"Yes. I am perfectly aware of fact that there won't be Federation of allied races since human development has been significantly slowed by us. However, by changing the line of events, it is very likely that the powerful race we were at war with in the future, won't be encountered. Well, it's very late. It's high time I went to sleep. Tomorrow, we will begin mining of the mineral, under your supervision. How can I say good bye in Na'vi language?"

She smiled and replied:

"_Kìyevam_e."

"_Kìyevame_, Neytiri."

"_Kìyevame. Eywa ngahu_."

I was wondering what did the last 2 words mean but before I could ask her, she was already gone.

After 2 months of hard work, we had 9 bodies of Na'vi produced in our medlab. There were no genetic complications or any mutations in them so we could call them ready. However, we couldn't find a way to transfer our minds to them with limited technological capabilities. That was why I decided to take a risk and try the transfer proposed by the natives. I was brought to a very magnificent tree. I could see many natives praying around it. I was put on a soil near the three and my oxygen bottle was taken off. I could feel plants touching me and I could look inside them. This was amazing and it was my last thought. Then, I lost consciousness.

I woke up. I could see Na'vi smiling around. I looked at myself. I was blue. Then, I turned my glimpse on my old body lying near me. The plants were growing on it. The only words I was able to say were "Wow. Thank you, whoever you are." After seeing me going back from the process alive and in the new body, others decided to do it, too. Imagine my frustration when 4 of 8 didn't make it. Zhen Huang, who actually created our bodies, Leonardo Esperanza, Neville Watson and Szu Kwan. According to the clan shaman, Mo'at, they had too weak will. Well, after all what I saw, I admitted that everything might be possible. At least, I had 4 crewmembers. Ironically, all of them were computer specs – Amanda Kowalska, Pierre Saint-Just, Thomas Starling and Frank Morgan. Their whole knowledge was useless at this point. They would never be able to see any computer again. They needed to learn how to live in a beautiful but hazardous environment. So did I. It was easier, however, with having a new body and be taller over 5 feet than before. We were going to be members of Omati'kaya clan after completing our training. It was decided that I was going to be taught by one of Neytiri's cousins, a girl named Sa'rima. Hell, so similar to Sarah. This won't make it an easier training…

When she came to me to give me my first instructions, I said: "Kaltxì" and smiled. She returned that smile.

(1) Chief, Sky People have come again. Much more stronger.

(2)Brothers and sisters! We must protect Omaticaya.

(*) I calculated the distances as accurately as possible, using Celestia 1.6


End file.
